A Study on the Korean Citizenship and Its Expansion Path

Abstract

As the world goes into an individualized society, the developoment of citizenship is more emphasized nowadays than the past. It is also the case with Korea. This study is basically a demographic survey of the Korean citizenship and its expansion path. Korean citizenship appears to have changed dramatically since World War II. Traditionally Korean society had kept a Cofusianic belief system in which social good and moral law was accentuated in human interactions and at which scholars were respected more than farmers, artisans and trademen. A number of studies have attempted to establish demographic determinants, such as age, sex, socioeconomic status and some other factors, in the Korean citizenship and its expansion path. Some studies have found that the Korean citizenship and its expansion path are significantly related to age, social class, etc.. However, many studies found no significant relationship between sex and the citizenship. This study was designed to investigate the effects of some demographic variables on the Korean citizenship and its expansion path. The subjects were about 2,750 persons, 1/3 from Chunchon and the others from Seoul. Half the subjects were male and half female. They were divided into 5 age groups , 4 educational groups, 8 occupational groups and 4 income groups. The subjects were asked to answer 12 long questions containing the content of Koreans citizenship and expansion path. In the realtive agreement level of the questionnaire, a Likert type scale set was used. The questions attempted to survey subjects citizenship trends and its expansion path by demographic variables. Chi-square analyses were conducted to determine the variables that discriminated the responses concerning the Korean citizenship and its expansion path. The results can be summarized as follows. Unlike the traditional Korean society , the modem Korean society shows differences among demographic groups in their citizenship and its expansion paths. Age, occupation and educatin produced significant effects. However, Chunchon subjects demonstrated some degree of similarities among groups. Implications are drawn and suggestions are made for the enhancement of Koreans' citizenship and the citizenship educatio

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